Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Dutch Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Rub the beef with treacle or brown sugar and turn it often.
After three days, wipe the beef and rub it with common salt and a little saltpetre.
Turn the beef daily for two weeks.
Press and smoke
Roll the beef tightly in a coarse cloth and place a heavy weight on it.
Hang the beef to dry in wood-smoke, turning it daily.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,435 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- The main meat, which the salt and cure gradually preserve and firm up.
- Treacle or brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture and softens the sharpness of the salt.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and inhibits spoilage bacteria, which preserves the meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it a stable pink-red colour during curing.
The step that matters
Turning the beef daily during the cure. Regular turning lets the salt, sugar and saltpetre penetrate evenly and keeps the brine from pooling on one side, so the meat cures uniformly instead of spoiling in patches.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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